Answers
Is metaverse real estate still an institutional asset class?
The answer
Not as a standalone allocation, and not on the 2021 thesis. What remains institutional is narrower and more durable: digital property inside platforms that hold real audiences and real revenue, where ownership is earned through participation rather than bought on speculation. The land trade ended; the property discipline it taught did not.
The firm's own record makes the argument in both directions, which is why it can be made plainly. GDA founded Metaverse Group, capitalized it, staffed it, and sold it to Tokens.com, a holding company listed in Toronto and New York. In March 2024 the firm led the sale of the same business a second time, from Tokens.com to StoryFire — two exits from one company, neither of which depended on the price of a parcel. The value was in the operating business, its tenants, and its management, exactly as it would be in physical property.
The segment's next act belongs to interactive platforms where virtual assets meet the rewards economy: worlds that pay for participation in something with a real denomination, rather than selling scarcity to speculators. The firm holds the thesis through positions including U-Topia and the Decentraland relationship, and through the For-Gold rewards architecture operating in its own ecosystem.